Are zoombinis the blue random creatures in a computer game?

Answer:

All your Zoombinis are blue without hands or arms in the game Zoombinis Logical Journey. You get to select 4 body parts on each-Hair, Eye type, Nose color, & Feet. The feet, for example, can be propellers, tires, sneakers, roller skates or springs.

Semantic Tags:

Zoombinis Mountain Rescue

Zoombinis Mountain Rescue is the second game in the franchise and boasts improved visuals and sound over its predecessor, Logical Journey Of The Zoombinis. After re-releasing the original game, The Learning Company developed two sequels, one of which was this.
After the foundation of Zoombiniville, the Zoombinis find peace once more, until a small group of them get trapped inside a cave seeking shelter from a storm. They meet up with strange creatures called Boolies who occupy a city known as Booliewood. As a result of the storm, the Boolies have been scattered across the land, and their leader, the Grand Boolie Boolie, has disappeared. The goal of the game is to recruit a total of 400 Boolies to Booliewood to resurrect the Grand Boolie Boolie.
After they've all made their way home, the Mighty Boolie Boolie returns and the game ends.
Other puzzles in the game include multi-dimensional movement, rotation puzzles, and several deduction problems, as well as new versions of puzzles from its prequel, Zoombinis: Logical Journey.
The graphics have been upgraded in this game and the Zoombinis now use 3D graphics. There are now three difficulty levels for each puzzle instead of four.
The term Boolie is a pun of Boolean, the type of logic used for the characters here. The Boolies are either happy or sad: they must be one or the other.
Route 1Turtle Hurdle
The puzzle is fairly similar to the prequel's puzzle, The Lion's Lair.
Zoombinis must be ordered on 16 turtles by a certain body part. If the wrong zoombini is placed, the turtle will shake the zoombini to the correct turtle, and one of the beams under the dock breaks. If all of them break, the dock collapses, and the leftover zoombinis must return to zoombiniville.
Not So Easy: Only 1 body part is revealed, shows all clues in order. 3 support beams.
Oh So Hard: Only 2 clues are shown. 4 support beams.
Very Hard: A secondary body part is added, only 1 clue for each body part is shown. 6 support beams.
Pipes of Paloo
The puzzle is fairly similar to the prequel's puzzle, Stone Rise.
Zombinis must be placed on pods next to each other based on the body part shown between the pods. If they match, the pipe's circuit will continue, when the grey pipes turn blue. If you are ready, click the switch. You only get 1 try on this.
Not So Easy: Pods are arranged into 8 rows, 2 pods on each row.
Oh So Hard: There is 1 pod that connects to 5 rows, 3 pods on each row.
Very Hard: There is 1 pod that connects to 3 pods, that also connect to other pods.
Aqua Cube
The zoombinis get trapped in the corners of a hollow cube. One or some of the corners contain fleens, and must be avoided. There is a control panel at the bottom-right that controls the glowing ball. You do not know what lever pushes the glowing ball at what direction. The objective is to move the glowing ball to the zoombinis, while avoiding the fleens. You only get a cetain of moves.
Not So Easy: There are 8 corners, 6 moves. Every move must save a zoombini group.
Oh So Hard: Still 8 corners, 6 moves. There is a warp button that allows multiple movements with using only 1 move. During warping, the glowing ball does not pick up any zoombini or fleen unless at the finish. It is not possible to gather all the zoombinis without using the warp button.
Very Hard: There are 16 corners, 11 moves. There is a fourth lever.
Route2ANote on route 2 and 3, zoombinis go in groups of 8, unlike 16 in route 1 and prequel.Beetle Bug Alley
There is a wall of beetles and markers. Use the tablets to arrange the beetles to their markers with the same color. Each tablet moves certain beetles. Once you are ready, flick the switch to open the 4 doors depending on what beetles match their pod, and you will have to solve another puzzle to open the 4 doors again for the zoombinis.
As difficulty increases, there will be more beetles and tablets.
Chef Norf
You must feed all the norfs in the station in order to pass. Click on a norf and it will give you a clue of what they want. Some clue are about other norfs.
Not So Easy: 4 Norfs, 2 servings: Drink and main dish
Oh So Hard: 4 Norfs, 3 servings: Drink, main dish, and desert
Very Hard: 6 Norfs, 3 Servings.
Route 2BBubble Bumpers
The puzzle is fairly similar to the prequel's puzzle, Bubblewonder Abyss, except that bubbles don't pop when zoombinis bump next to each other.

Theme Park World

Theme Park World (known as Sim Theme Park in the United States and Brazil) is a construction and management simulation, and is a sequel to the successful 1994 video game Theme Park. Theme Park World was developed by Bullfrog Productions and released by Electronic Arts in 1999. Initially developed for Windows, it was later ported to PlayStation and PlayStation 2, as well for Macintosh computers. The Mac version was published by Feral Interactive.
Although there's no connection with Maxis's Sim titles, both Maxis and Bullfrog are owned by Electronic Arts, so it is still seen as part of the Sim series. It was followed by Theme Park Inc (also known as Sim Coaster) in 2000/2001.
Using golden tickets, users were able to buy new rides, attractions, shops and features on the game's website. Most of the staff the user can hire in Theme Park World are named after people who worked on the game.
There are four different types of parks to unlock and build, known as Worlds. Each World has different rides, shops, and sideshows. As you unlock new areas, the game becomes progressively harder. The Worlds are:
The user also has the option of changing the names of the Worlds.
Golden Keys and Golden Tickets.
The player can earn golden tickets for doing great things such as getting one-hundred people in the park, getting two-hundred people in the park, getting three-hundred people in the park within three months, and getting a $450000 profit in a year. There are 33 golden tickets in all and they can be used to buy special rides that can't be researched, just like platinum tickets. Also, for every three golden tickets the player gets they get a golden key to open another park. One of the rides you can get with this special feature is an elevated tram above your park. The mentioned tram ride is present in all four parks as a different ride for example: the Lost Kingdom version is called "Jurassic Tours" and features a giant dinosaur flying around, the Halloween World version is called "Flightmare Tours" and depicts a giant purple blip with a clown face flying around, the Wonder Land version is called "Tweety Tours" and has a massive blue bird flying around and last, the Space Zone version is called the "Cosmic Cruiser" and has a hovercraft floating around. All four of them are based the same with way just made to match the theme they are in they all fly around the whole park until the tour is over and they also have at least three flying dinosaurs, blips, birds, or hovercrafts per ride.
There is an announcer by the name of Buzzy, a black ball shaped guide who helps the player with advice during gameplay.
Theme Park World won a BAFTA Award at the 2000 Interactive Awards ceremony in London. The award was collected onstage by composer James Hannigan, sound designer Richard Joseph and Audio Director, Nick Laviers.

Logical Journey Of The Zoombinis

The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis is the first game in the educational software series created by Chris Hancock and Scot Osterweil of TERC. There are three titles in the series: The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis, Zoombinis: Mountain Rescue, and Zoombinis: Island Odyssey. The game is also known as Zoombinis Maths Journey.
The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis (also published under the title "Zoombinis: Logical Journey") was the first title of the series, based on the "Zoombinis", a race of small blue creatures depicted with varying facial features, initially living in prosperous peace on a small island called 'Zoombini Isle'; but later enslaved by their neighbors, the Bloats. The game then depicts the Zoombinis' search for a new home, featuring a variety of logical puzzles which the player must solve.
The puzzles involve the physical features of the Zoombinis as part of the solution. For example, in the puzzle 'Allergic Cliffs', the player is given a choice of 2 bridges, each of which will allow Zoombinis to pass only if they have certain combinations of features. The list of available features is as follows:
Hair: Flat-topped hair, a small tuft, shaggy hair, bobbed hair with a cap, and a ponytail.Eyes: Glasses, sunglasses, wide open eyes, one eye, and sleepy (half-closed) eyes.Noses: Purple, blue, green, red and orange.Feet: Propellers, roller skates, springs, pink shoes and two wheels.
In total, the number of unique combinations is 625, and the player has to save 1,250 Zoombinis in total (including matching pairs).
The Zoombinis travel in groups of 16 across a series of puzzles. There are 12 puzzles in total, split into four sections, and the Zoombinis must complete 9 puzzles to establish their new home at 'Zoombiniville'. The first and last 'legs' are compulsory and are completed by all Zoombinis; for the second leg the player is given a choice to take either the north or the south path. Between each 'leg' is a campsite where the Zoombinis can be stored for later retrieval.
If the player successfully brings an entire party of 16 Zoombinis through a leg, the leg will increase in difficulty and a building will be constructed at Zoombiniville to celebrate. The four difficulty levels are 'Not So Easy', 'Oh So Hard', 'Very Hard', and 'Very Very Hard', and each difficulty level is color-coded. Once a leg has increased in difficulty, there is no way to reverse the change. If a group of 16 Zoombinis complete a leg while the difficulty is Very Very Hard, the difficulty does not increase; whereas completing a leg under the Very Very Hard difficulty level will only reward the player with a new building once, since there is only one building per leg at each difficulty level.
This leg starts at Zoombini Isle and finishes at the first campsite, Shelter Rock.
Puzzle type – Logic, Set theory.
Here are two bridges across a crevasse, supported by six wooden pegs. Individual Zoombinis can only cross one of the bridges, and the bridge that any Zoombini is allowed to cross is determined by facial characteristics. If the wrong bridge is selected, the face embedded in the cliff will sneeze and the Zoombini will be sent tumbling back to the initial side, whereupon a peg will fall into the crevice. If all six pegs come loose, the bridges collapse and the Zoombinis who did not cross are unable to do so. If the player moves the same Zoombini to each of the two bridges (where the first bridge was wrong and the second bridge correct), the player is guaranteed five Zoombinis on the other side.
Puzzle Type - Logic, Set Theory
The Zoombinis arrive at a stone face divided into four caves, which can be accessed by one path each. Each path is guarded by two stone guardians, who divide the Zoombinis according to features. If the wrong cave is selected, a guardian will release a rock slide, sending the Zoombini to the bottom. The player has many chances to find the right cave for each Zoombini before a rock slide seals the cave paths, leaving behind those who have not entered a cave.
Puzzle type-Trial and error.
The Zoombinis arrive on a dirt road guarded by the trolls Arno, Willomaen, and Shyler, beside a pizza-making machine permitting different toppings for a pizza (cheese, pepperoni, bell peppers, mushrooms, and olives) and ice cream (whipped cream, chocolate syrup, and a cherry). The player must create a pizza with unique toppings for each troll. If none of the trolls accept the toppings on the pizza, it will be thrown into a pit; whereas if one of the trolls likes all the toppings present on the pizza, it will be thrown onto the rock behind that troll. If a troll receives a pizza with all desired toppings, the troll will stand on its rock and wait for the remaining trolls to be satisfied. If the player is unsuccessful in delivering the correct pizza after 6 tries, the Zoombini delivering the pizza is struck by a troll and returns to Zoombini Isle, leaving another to take its place. When all trolls are satisfied, they consume their pizzas and the remaining Zoombinis continue their journey.
There are significant changes to the puzzle as the level of difficulty increases:
Once this leg is complete, the remaining Zoombinis will arrive at Shelter Rock, the first campsite. The player is then given the opportunity to take either the north or the south path to the next leg if they have 16 Zoombinis present. If the player does not have enough Zoombinis, or if they decide to return to a different campsite, the player can place any remaining Zoombinis into a storage compartment.
This leg starts at Shelter Rock and finishes at the second camp site, Shade Tree. The Zoombinis must travel north from Shelter Rock in order to take this leg.
Puzzle type- Trial and error, Following a sequence, Pattern finding.
Captain Cajun will take the Zoombinis across a river on his ferry boat, but only if they have a characteristic in common with the adjacent Zoombini. If this does not occur, Captain Cajun will taunt the Zoombini and launch the Zoombini off the boat. If one Zoombini tries to sit on a seat already taken, Captain Cajun will taunt the Zoombini again and the Zoombini returns to the group. As the puzzle difficulty increases, the seats become closer together, so each Zoombini must have something in common with multiple Zoombinis.
On the first level, the Zoombinis are placed in a line where fourteen of them must have something in common with two other Zoombinis and the other two just only needs something common with one other Zoombini. On the second level, the Zoombinis are placed on a 2 by 8 grid. On the third level, the Zoombinis are placed on a 4 by 4 grid. The final level is a 4 by 4 grid with the rows shifted slightly. Here, some spaces require one Zoombini to share something in common with six other Zoombinis, as opposed to four.
Puzzle Type - Following a sequence, pattern finding, problem solving.
The player must find a path among a grid of different-shaped, patterned, and colored lily pads, across which the Zoombinis are carried by the eponymous toads, whereof the markings of each correspond to a particular feature distinguishing the path. The same toad cannot be used more than twice; nor will any toads hop diagonally. If the player chooses a path which does not continue across the grid, the toad and Zoombini remain in the grid.
When the puzzle's difficulty increases, a fairy is shown at the beginning of the puzzle changing the lily pads with a wand. The wand (called the "Swapping Stick") is left with the toads and the player must use it assembling a path, until the wand's use is exhausted. In the third and fourth levels, crabs obstruct the toads' pathway, or even misdirect them.
Similar to Captain Cajun's Ferryboat, the Zoombinis must be arranged on stones so that each Zoombini has one particular feature in common with its neighbor on the next stone, identified by a small etching on the stone between them. Doing so will create an electric charge (indicated by the stones turning red or blue). Upon completion of this arrangement, the Zoombinis continue. In 'Very Very Hard' Mode (Red, Level 4) of this activity, in the centre of the field usually will be a line of four stones (starting with the main stone furthest right and the other three directly left of it). Linking Zoombinis on these four stones, and these four stones only, a banner stating that the player has entered the 'Psychedelic ZB Zone' where the Zoombinis will start to flash, for visual effect only.
This leg starts at Shelter Rock and finishes at the second camp site, Shade Tree. If the Zoombinis choose to travel south from Shelter Rock, this is the leg that they will take.
The Zoombinis meet their estranged cousins, the Fleens, in a clearing. There are three Fleens on a tree branch, which must be lured from it by a Zoombini who has characteristics that correspond to the Fleen's characteristics. The object of this puzzle is to deduce which Zoombini characteristics correspond to the Fleen characteristics. When a Fleen is lured off the branch by a Zoombini, it chases the Zoombini until the Zoombini escapes onto another tree branch. The player has six attempts to match the Zoombini with the Fleen before individual Zoombinis fall from the tree, only to be chased away by the Fleen counterpart. If all three Fleens on the tree branch are lured off, the remaining Fleens are chased away by bees in formation of a pair of scissors, an arrow, or a storm cloud.
If the 16th and last Zoombini lures the last Fleen off the branch, the player is guaranteed six Zoombinis in the next challenge.
Upon welcome to Didimension Hotel, the player must arrange the Zoombinis in the Hotel's compartments, again divided by characteristics. If a Zoombini is placed in the wrong compartment, the ledge holding the Zoombini will retract and the Zoombini will fall, whereupon the adjacent clock causes 5 minutes to pass. If the clock reaches midnight, all the ledges will retract, and the Zoombinis remaining must return to the previous base camp. As the difficulty increases, more rooms are added, or made inaccessible by Fleens, and the clock disappears. The first level has 5 rooms, the second has 25 rooms, the third has 25 rooms with some rooms boarded up, and the fourth level has 125 rooms and no clock.
A large stone wall blocks the path of the Zoombinis; but a nearby machine creates mud balls that can be colored and stamped with a shape. If the mud balls hit a certain target on the wall, either one, two or three Zoombinis are launched over the wall to safety. Eventually, the mud in the machine will run out, stranding the remaining Zoombinis. As the difficulty increases, additional squares require the player to pick the correct shape, mud colour, and colour inside the shape, and the color pattern will shift diagonally.
Once Zoombinis complete either of these two legs, they will arrive at Shade Tree, the second campsite. Shade Tree works in exactly the same way as Shelter Rock; but there is now only one onward path.
This is the final leg of the journey.
The Zoombinis encounter a cave where a large stone lion guards the only way onward, and to which the Zoombinis are permitted by a portcullis supported by pegs. Below the lion is a path consisting of 16 stones. The Zoombinis must be placed on the path, in order, according to certain characteristics shown on the wall. If a Zoombini is placed on the wrong stone, that Zoombini is transported to the correct stone and a peg is released. When all the pegs are gone, the portcullis falls and the Zoombinis behind it cannot continue. If a Zoombini is accidentally dropped in the adjacent abyss, that Zoombini will be thrown back out, but no peg holding the gate will emerge. The Zoombinis placed correctly on the path are allowed by the lion to continue their journey. As the difficulty increases, characteristics disappear from the wall until none are shown.
Puzzle type – Identifying, forward planning.
The player is presented with a set of glass slides, each bearing the image of a Zoombini, which must be chosen to match a slide featuring its doppelganger, facing it across a large, crystal pendulum. If this is done correctly, the pendulum is lifted and the Zoombini, riding a mine cart, will jump across a shaft and proceed. If it is done incorrectly, the pendulum is lowered and the Zoombini will crash into it and fall down the shaft.
As difficulty increases, the original reflections are modified by additional slides bearing isolate features. Later, the player will be forced to use a particular Zoombini (based on the order in which they left the last challenge), and later still, must use the same set of intervening slides to match the images of two Zoombinis in succession.
The Zoombinis navigate a maze while encased in an air-borne bubble, being transmitted through one of two starting points; and the player has no control over the bubble once it is in motion. Panels at junctions change the direction of some Zoombinis, according to certain characteristics; wherefore an incorrect placement at the start may cause the Zoombini to vanish. If placed correctly, the Zoombinis pass to the other side of the maze. All lost Zoombinis return to the Shade Tree base camp.
As the puzzle's difficulty increases, the Zoombinis can only navigate the maze from one starting point. The player must notice arrows that alternate the directions in which they send Zoombinis, as well as panels that change direction when a bubble passes over a corresponding trigger. Still other panels lock bubbles in place until another bubble passes a release trigger, allowing the trapped bubble to continue. So as not to lose Zoombinis, players must send Zoombinis into the maze in the correct sequence and timing. If two bubbles collide, both Zoombinis will be lost, unless one is locked in place.
Zoombinis who survive this leg reach Zoombiniton. The more Zoombinis complete the journey, the more buildings are built and the bigger the town grows.
Zoombiniton is the new home of the Zoombinis. Each time the player brings an entire group of 16 Zoombinis through a certain leg at a certain level, a special building is constructed.
The buildings earned are (in order): a band shell, a windmill, a general store, a swimming pool, a clock tower, a bowling alley, a fire station, an opera house, a paper clip museum, a courthouse, a monument, a school, a city hall, a library, an observatory, and a playground.
The original release of the game by Broderbund Europe in March 1996 came in three languages: British (v1.0BR), French (v1.0FR), and German (v1.0DE). The US division of Broderbund made some minor changes and released a US version (v1.1) in December 1996. As part of the US release they changed the names of several areas of the game as follows:
In addition the following changes were made to v1.1:
The US version of the game (v1.1) was expanded and republished as "Zoombinis: Logical Journey v2.0" by The Learning Company in 2001. The following changes were made since v1.1:
There are currently two more games in the Zoombini franchise, Zoombinis Mountain Rescue and Zoombini Island Odyssey

Zoombini Island Odyssey

Zoombinis: Island Odyssey is an educational computer game made as the sequel to Zoombinis Mountain Rescue.
In this game, the Zoombinis discover that they left the native moths to die in their former homeland of Zoombini Isle, and return to the Isle, which is now empty of the colonist Bloats who earlier enslaved the Zoombinis. The player must then complete different puzzles, such as growing berries and breeding butterflies, to eventually restore the ecosystem of the island. This is the first game of the series to incorporate science in the puzzles, which include intersection of rates, decoding, astronomical time, Venn diagrams, and Punnett squares, as well as some reincarnations of puzzles from Logical Journey. The graphics have again changed, and the Zoombinis' features are no longer important to gameplay. Here, they are fully 3-D. When the Zoombinis release 224 Zerbles (native wildlife) into the wild, the Zoombinis return to Zoombiniville, and the game is won.
The first puzzle in the game is a mixture of timing and pattern finding. A large wheel turns round in a circle that can be stopped at any time and two sets of balls are selected to fill in the cups that are attached to the ends of the spokes on the wheel. The balls are made of rock or mud and the player must get the timing and order correct so that the rock ball hits the launch pad that the Zoombini is standing on. If all mud hits the launch pad, nothing will happen. As the difficulty increases, more wheels are added making the pattern harder to follow.
This puzzle challenges the player's logical thinking. There are hieroglyphs on the wall, and gamers need to put in the corresponding wall piece to win. The player must use pattern and memory for the wall pieces are in runes. If a wall piece is put in the wrong spot, bits of stone will fall. If this continues, the door will be blocked and the zoombinis who made it will pass. As difficulty increases, it will be much trickier with pattern change.

Inline skates

Inline skates (often called Rollerblades after the popular trade name) are a type of roller skate used for inline skating. Unlike quad skates, which have two front and two rear wheels, inline skates have four or five wheels arranged in a single line. Some inline skates, especially those for recreation, have a "stop" or "brake" which is used to slow down while skating; most have a heel stop rather than the toe stop, particularly indispensable for inline figure skating.
The modern style of in-line skates was developed as a substitute for ice skates, for use by a Russian athlete training on solid ground for Olympic long track speed skating events. Life magazine published a photo of American skater Eric Heiden, training for the 1980 Olympics, using such skates on a Wisconsin road.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Rollerblade, Inc., a company founded by Scott and Brennan Olson in Minneapolis, Minnesota, widely promoted inline skating; they were so successful that their trademarked name Rollerblade became synonymous with inline skates.
John Joseph Merlin experimented with single- to many-rowed devices worn on feet in 1780. Inline skates, skates designed to work like ice skates during periods of warm weather, were invented by Louis Legrange of France in 1849. Legrange designed the skates for an opera where a character was to appear to be skating on ice. The skates were problematic and unsuccessful as the wearer could not turn nor could they stop.
The first U.S. patent for modern in-line skates, designed to behave like ice runners with individually sprung and cushioned wheels, was granted under patent number in July, 1953 to Ernest Kahlert of Santa Ana, CA. They were briefly described in the April 1950 issue of "Popular Mechanics" and again in the April 1954 issue of "Popular Science" in the section called "New Ideas from the Inventors." In Canada in 1972, Mountain Dew attempted to sell Mettoy's product the "Skeeler", an inline skate that was developed for Russian hockey players and speed skaters.
The first commercially available inline skate for this form of Rollerskating is in 1987 by Rollerblade. In 1996, Jason Lewis completed the first solo crossing of the USA on inline skates, part of Expedition 360, a successful attempt to circumnavigate the globe using only human power. En route he was hit by a car in Colorado, breaking both legs. After nine months he completed the journey from Fort Lauderdale to San Francisco. In 2012, Kacie Fischer became the first woman, and the fastest person, to inline skate across the United States; she skated from California to Florida in 47 days.
A skate is composed of a boot, worn on the foot. To the boot is attached a frame, which holds the wheels in place. Bearings allow the wheels to rotate freely around an axle. Finally, the rubber brake typically attaches to the frame of the right foot.
There are different types of inline skates for different types of skating such as aggressive skating, speed skating, Inline hockey and artistic inline skating. Those differ in the boots, frames and wheels that are used.
For most skating a high boot is used, which provides more ankle support and is easier to skate in, particularly for beginners. Speed skaters often use a carbon fiber boot which provides greater support with a lower cut allowing more ankle flexion. For recreational skating a soft boot is used for greater comfort, but many other disciplines prefer a harder boot, either to protect the foot against impact or for better control of the skate. The boot may also contain shock absorbent padding for comfort. Downhill skaters often use boots that are heat-molded to the shape of the foot, with a foam liner.
Most aggressive skates use a hard boot or a hard/soft boot for increased support.
Typical recreational skates use frames built out of high-grade polyurethane (plastic). Low-end department or toy store skate frames may be composed of other types of plastic. Speed skate frames are usually built out of carbon fibre or extruded aluminium (more expensive but more solid), magnesium, or even pressed aluminium, which is then folded into a frame (cheaper but less sturdy).
Carbon fibre frames are expensive but generally more flexible, making for a smoother ride at the expense of worse power transfer between the leg and the wheels. In general, carbon fibre frames weigh about 160-180 grams. Recently, high-end carbon fiber frames with a monocoque construction have been introduced. They offer the same level of stiffness as aluminum frames while weighing only around 130g. Aluminum can weigh from 170 to 240 grams. Frame length ranges from 2 wheel framed freestyle wheels (used in aggressive skating) to around 230 mm for short-framed four wheel skates (used in most inline designs), up to about 325 mm for a five wheel racing frame.
Ball bearings allow the wheels to rotate freely and smoothly. Bearings are usually rated on the ABEC scale, a measure of the manufactured precision tolerance, ranging from 1 (worst) to 11(best) in odd numbers. The ABEC standards were originally intended for high-speed machinery, not skating applications, and do not account for the quality of steel used, which is also important. While higher rated bearings are generally better in overall quality, whether they automatically translate to more speed is questionable. Since at least 2007, Rollerblade brand amongst others have begun using their own rating system. For instance, Rollerblade brand is currently using a SG1 to SG9 rating system, whereas TwinCam brand is using its own "ILQ" (InLine Qualified) rating system and Bones brand is using its own "Skate Rated" rating system.
A mistake that is often made in purchasing bearings is that spending more translates to more speed. Generally, clean inline skate bearings contribute about 2% of the rolling resistance that the best urethane inline skate wheels produce, so there is very little opportunity in improving speed by spending more money on bearings. The ideal inline skate bearing has the following features: 1) a proven brand (such as SKF, NTN, etc.) 2) dirt-proof or water-proof seals (preferred) 3) abec-1 rating for more dirt tolerance if any type of contamination should enter the bearing race and 4) be lubricated with a very light grease or gel that will not leak out of the bearing and will protect the race if any water should get in.
Newer bearings on the market now use ceramic ball bearings instead of steel, the merits of which have yet to be determined.][
Two bearings are used per wheel. The bearings slip into openings molded into each side of the wheel hub, and a flange molded into the wheel hub holds the bearings the correct distance apart. Additionally there is an axle spacer either machined into the axle or that slides over the axle (depending on the axle system used). Since the outer race of the bearing contacts the wheel spacer and the inner race of the bearing contacts the axle spacer, it is critical that the relationship between these two spacers is correct. If the wheel spacer is wider than the axle spacer the bearings will bind when the axle bolt (or bolts) are tightened. This can be seen when installing the wheels: first ensure the bearings are fully seated in the wheel hubs, and that the wheels do not contact (rub) the frame. Install the wheels in the frame and tighten the axle just finger tight. Spin the wheel and then fully tighten the axle. If the wheel immediately slows down or stops, it is most likely because the axle spacer is narrower than the wheel hub spacer, and the bearing races are being bound up. If the wheel continues to spin freely, grab the wheel and push it back and forth along the axle axis. If it noticeably moves or "clicks" slightly, it means the axle spacer is wider than the hub spacer.
Wheel sizes vary depending on the skating style:
Wheels are nowadays almost universally made of polyurethane (a kind of durable plastic). Most other plastics and rubber either wear down too quickly or have too much rolling resistance. In general, the bigger the wheel, the faster the skate. However, large wheels take more energy to start rolling. Smaller wheels allow faster acceleration, maneuverability, and a lower center of gravity. Wheel hardness is measured on the A scale (see Durometer) and usually ranges between 72A-93A (higher numbers are harder). Harder wheels are not necessarily faster but tend to be more durable; soft wheels may have better grip and are generally less affected by road bumps. In the 1990s, wheel rolling resistance (CRR - coefficient of rolling resistance) tended to be minimized with wheel hardness in the 78A durometer range, with rolling resistance dramatically increasing below 75A durometer and above 85A durometer. In the early 2000s, urethane compounds improved significantly, allowing skaters to use harder compounds to get better wheel life, and get the lowest rolling resistance in the 82A-84A durometer range. Wheel profiles and thicknesses again vary by application. Elliptic profiles were thought to minimize friction for a faster ride; however, they were intended to mimic the knife-like properties of an ice blade. More rounded profiles provided lower rolling resistance due to the greater "belly" or tire that increased resilience (or "rebound"); and these wheels were perceived as having better grip and being more stable (less like an ice blade), but were heavier than elliptical-profiled wheels and were often used in downhill racing (such as the Hyper Downhill racing wheels) and in recreational skates. Another advantage of rounded profile wheels is longer wear life due to the increased amount rubber on the tire. To increase stability at high speed, skates intended for downhill skating usually have five or six wheels, in contrast with recreational skates, which typically have four wheels. This advantage of more wheels having less rolling resistance has been largely negated by the 100-110mm diameter wheels with 4-wheel trucks.
A hard rubber brake attached to the heel of the frame allows the skater to stop by lifting the toes of the skate, forcing the brake onto the ground. Learning how to use the heel brake is very important for beginners, as it is the most reliable, safe way to stop in emergencies and to control speed on downhills.
Heel brakes can interfere with a useful technique called a crossover turn, in which a skater crosses one leg over another to make a sharp turn without losing much speed; for this reason, some users prefer not to use heel brakes. Skaters in the freestyle slalom and aggressive inline skating disciplines also tend not to use heel brakes, since they can limit the skater's ability to perform tricks effectively. Most aggressive inline skates and racing skates have no heel brake, thereby permitting extra speed and control. Inline skaters lacking a heel brake can use various other methods to stop, such as the T-stop in which the skater moves one skate perpendicular to the other, making a "T" shape to increase friction and reduce speed, or the more advanced maneuver of a hockey stop, in which the skater quickly moves both skates perpendicular to the path of motion.
A flat setup is the most common setup used on inline skates. Almost all non-aggressive inline skates are sold with a flat wheel setup. Flat means that all the wheels touch the ground at the same time when resting on flat ground. Flat setups are not the most maneuverable but what they lack in maneuverability they make up for in speed. Flat setups are widely considered][ to be the fastest setups. Speed skaters and marathon skaters normally use flat setups. Aggressive skates are sometimes sold with flat setups, but with a small space in the middle for grinding.
It is worth noting that having a flat setup is just one factor in a fast skate setup. A long frame, low resistance bearings, and good technique all contribute greatly to a skater's speed.
Full rockers are used by skaters who favor maneuverability when skating on flat ground. Freestyle skaters, freestyle slalom skaters and artistic inline skaters tend to use this setup. This setup is called "crescent" or "banana" because it is curved, and mimics a curved ice blade profile. On flat ground this setup will only have 1-2 wheels touching the ground at any one time. This makes the skate much easier to turn but lacks stability so it is harder to balance on. In addition, a full rocker is slower than a flat setup in terms of top speed
Flat setups generally wear into a 'natural' rocker. This is because the front and back wheels seem to receive the vast majority of wear on inline skates.
Having a short frame (230mm-245mm) in combination with a full rocker is optimum for achieving the highest manoeuvrability when skating.
Front rockers are often used by street skaters who want to combine the ability of a full rocker to handle imperfections in the ground with a flat setup’s sheer speed. Having a smaller wheel at the front encourages the front wheel to guide the rest of the skate over ground imperfections, rather than digging in and tripping up the less experienced skater. Maintaining a flat profile at the back allows the skater to transfer power through the rear of the skate efficiently to maintain a good speed.
Some hockey skates and other skates include a HiLo setup. This is a great source of confusion to skaters.][ HiLo setups resemble a flat setup in that all 4 wheels touch the ground at the same time. Unlike a flat setup, however, different wheel sizes are used. The front two wheels will be smaller than the back two wheels. This is possible because of the location of the axles on the frame itself. One example is a Nike/Bauer frame that has a configuration of 72mm, 72mm, 80mm, and 78mm.
This setup is supposed][ to provide better maneuvering on corners while still giving the speed of the bigger wheels when going straight. It is also supposed][ to encourage a forward leaning ‘sprint’ posture, which may lead to faster skating. There is considerable debate][ as to whether any of these proposed advantages are true.][
Another variant of the setup in which there are three diameters of wheels. It is supposed to emphasize the same benefits as the HiLo system but with greater maneuverability due to the smaller front wheels. The configuration is 72mm, 76mm, 76mm, 80mm.
A few aggressive skate frames (most notably the Rollerblade Switch Frame) are designed so that there are two big outer wheels, and two small inner wheels, rockered so that they all touch the ground. This gives the benefits of a flat setup, while giving the rollerblader more space to grind on the H-block between the wheels.
Anti rocker is the most popular setup for aggressive skaters. An anti-rocker wheel is a small hard wheel that replaces the two middle wheels. Anti-rocker wheels almost never touch the ground except in cases where the terrain is uneven, such as skating over a ramp. Anti rockers can be made of plastic, or high density polyurethane. Some use bearings so that they can spin. Others do not use bearings so that they're lighter. The anti-rocker setup makes maneuvering harder, overall speed slower, a rougher ride, and a wider turning radius, but because of the extra space in the middle, it makes grinding objects much easier than with a flat setup.
The freestyle frame is another setup used by aggressive skaters. This setup simply has two wheels - one in the front and one in the back. In between the two wheels is plenty of empty space, which is used for grinding. Freestyle frames can be purchased, although removing the two inner wheels of a flat or anti-rocker frame technically makes it freestyle.
Tri-rocker is used by some aggressive skaters. It is another method of making grinds easier. A frame with a tri-rocker setup has only one wheel in the middle, either in the second wheel position or in the third wheel position, depending on what kinds of grinds the skater plans on doing. The remaining axle has an anti-rocker wheel, a special grind block, or is just left empty.
The purpose of a tri-rocker setup is to give the skater good speed and maneuverability, like on a flat setup. But because of the extra space, grinding is also a little easier than a flat setup.
Forms of inline skating:

Blue

Blue is the colour of the clear sky and the deep sea. On the optical spectrum, blue is located between violet and green.
Blue is the colour of light between violet and green on the visible spectrum. Hues of blue include indigo and ultramarine, closer to violet; pure blue, without any mixture of other colours; Cyan, which is midway on the spectrum between blue and green, and the other blue-greens turquoise, teal, and aquamarine.
Blues also vary in shade or tint; darker shades of blue contain black or grey, while lighter tints contain white. Darker shades of blue include ultramarine, cobalt blue, navy blue, and Prussian blue; while lighter tints include sky blue, azure, and Egyptian blue. (For a more complete list see the List of colours).
Blue pigments were originally made from minerals such as lapis lazuli, cobalt and azurite, and blue dyes were made from plants; usually woad in Europe, and Indigofera tinctoria, or True indigo, in Asia and Africa. Today most blue pigments and dyes are made by a chemical process.
Blue is the colour of the deep sea and the clear sky. The harbour of Toulon, France, on the Mediterranean Sea.
Pure blue, also known as high blue, is not mixed with any other colours.
Navy blue, also known as low blue, is the darkest shade of pure blue.
Sky blue or pale azure, mid-way on the RBG colour wheel between blue and cyan.
Extract of natural Indigo, the most popular blue dye before the invention of synthetic dyes. It was the colour of the first blue jeans.
A block of lapis lazuli, originally used to make ultramarine.
Ultramarine, the most expensive blue during the Renaissance, is a slightly violet-blue.
Cobalt has been used since 2000 BC to colour cobalt glass, Chinese porcelain, and the stained glass windows of medieval cathedrals.
The synthetic pigment cobalt blue was invented in 1802, and was popular with Vincent van Gogh and other impressionist painters.
Cyan is made by mixing equal amounts of blue and green light, or removing red from white light.
The colour teal takes its name from the colour around the eyes of the common teal duck.
Egyptian blue goblet from Mesopotamia, 1500–1300 BC. This was the first synthetic blue, first made in about 2500 BC.
Prussian blue, invented in 1707, was the first modern synthetic blue.
Cerulean blue pigment was invented in 1805 and first marketed in 1860. It was frequently used for painting skies.
The modern English word blue comes from Middle English bleu or blewe, from the Old French bleu, a word of Germanic origin, related to the Old High German word blao.
In Russian and some other languages, there is no single word for blue, but rather different words for light blue (голубой, goluboy) and dark blue (синий, siniy).
Several languages, including Japanese, Thai, Korean, and Lakota Sioux, use the same word to describe blue and green. For example, in Vietnamese the colour of both tree leaves and the sky is xanh. In Japanese, the word for blue (青 ao) is often used for colours that English speakers would refer to as green, such as the colour of a traffic signal meaning "go". (For more on this subject, see Distinguishing blue from green in language)
Blue was a latecomer among colours used in art and decoration. Reds, blacks, browns, and ochres are found in cave paintings from the Upper Paleolithic period, but not blue. Blue was also not used for dyeing fabric until long after red, ochre, pink and purple. This is probably due to the perennial difficulty of making good blue dyes and pigments. The earliest known blue dyes were made from plants - woad in Europe, indigo in Asia and Africa, while blue pigments were made from minerals, usually either lapis lazuli or azurite.
Lapis lazuli, a semi-precious stone, has been mined in Afghanistan for more than three thousand years, and was exported to all parts of the ancient world. In Iran and Mesopotamia, it was used to make jewellery and vessels. In Egypt, it was used for the eyebrows on the funeral mask of King Tutankhamun (1341–1323 BC).
The cost of importing lapis lazuli by caravan across the desert from Afghanistan to Egypt was extremely high. Beginning in about 2500 BC, the ancient Egyptians began to produce their own blue pigment known as Egyptian blue, made by grinding silica, lime, copper and alkalai, and heating it to 800 or 900 degrees C. This is considered the first synthetic pigment. Egyptian blue was used to paint wood, papyrus and canvas, and was used to colour a glaze to make faience beads, inlays, and pots. It was particularly used in funeral statuary and figurines and in tomb paintings. Blue was a considered a beneficial colour which would protect the dead against evil in the afterlife. Blue dye was also used to colour the cloth in which mummies were wrapped.
In Egypt, blue was associated with the sky and with divinity. The Egyptian god Amun could make his skin blue so that he could fly, invisible, across the sky. Blue could also protect against evil; many people around the Mediterranean still wear a blue amulet, representing the eye of God, to protect them from misfortune.
Blue glass was manufactured in Mesopotamia and Egypt as early as 2500 BC, using the same copper ingredients as Egyptian blue pigment. They also added cobalt, which produced a deeper blue, the same blue produced in the Middle Ages in the stained glass windows of the cathedrals of Saint-Denis and Chartres.
The Ishtar Gate of ancient Babylon (604-562 BC) was decorated with deep blue glazed bricks used as a background for pictures of lions, dragons and aurochs.
The ancient Greeks classified colours by whether they were light or dark, rather than by their hue. The Greek word for dark blue, kyaneos, could also mean dark green, violet, black or brown. The ancient Greek word for a light blue, glaukos, also could mean light green, grey, or yellow.
The Greeks imported indigo dye from India, calling it indikon. They used Egyptian blue in the wall paintings of Knossos, in Crete, (2100 BC). It was not one of the four primary colours for Greek painting described by Pliny the Elder (red, yellow, black and white), but nonetheless it was used as a background colour behind the friezes on Greek temples and to colour the beards of Greek statues.
The Romans also imported indigo dye, but blue was the colour of working class clothing; the nobles and rich wore white, black, red or violet. Blue was considered the colour of mourning. It was also considered the colour of barbarians; Julius Caesar reported that the Celts and Germans dyed their faces blue to frighten their enemies, and tinted their hair blue when they grew old.
Nonetheless, the Romans made extensive use of blue for decoration. According to Vitruvius, they made dark blue pigment from indigo, and imported Egyptian blue pigment. The walls of Roman villas in Pompeii had frescoes of brilliant blue skies, and blue pigments were found in the shops of colour merchants. The Romans had many different words for varieties of blue, including caeruleus, caesius, glaucus, cyaneus, lividus, venetus, aerius, and ferreus, but two words, both of foreign origin, became the most enduring; blavus, from the Germanic word blau, which eventually became bleu or blue; and azureus, from the Arabic word lazaward, which became azure.
Lapis lazuli pendant from Mesopotamia (Circa 2900 BC).
A lapis azuli bowl from Iran (End of 3rd, beginning 2nd millennium BC)
A hippo decorated with aquatic plants, made of faience with a blue glaze, made to resemble lapis lazuli. (2033–1710 BC)
Egyptian blue colour in a tomb painting (Around 1500 BC)
Egyptian faience bowl (Between 1550 and 1450 BC)
a decorated cobalt glass vessel from Ancient Egypt (1450–1350 BC)
The blue eyebrows in the gold funeral mask of King Tutankhamun are made of lapis lazuli. Other blues in the mask are made of turquoise, glass and faience.
Figure of a servant from the tomb of King Seth I (1244–1279 BC). The figure is made of faience with a blue glaze, designed to resemble turquoise.
A lion against a blue background from the Ishtar Gate of ancient Babylon. (575 BC)
A Roman wall painting of Venus and her son Eros, from Pompeii (about 30 BC)
Mural in the bedroom of the villa of Fannius Synestor in Boscoreale, (50-40 BC) in the Metropolitan Museum.
A painted pottery pot coloured with Han blue from the Han Dynasty in China (206 BC to 220 AD).
A tomb painting from the eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD) in Henan Province, China.
Dark blue was widely used in the decoration of churches in the Byzantine Empire. In Byzantine art Christ and the Virgin Mary usually wore dark blue or purple. Blue was used as a background colour representing the sky in the magnificent mosaics which decorated Byzantine churches.
In the Islamic world, blue was of secondary importance to green, believed to be the favourite colour of the Prophet Mohammed. At certain times in Moorish Spain and other parts of the Islamic world, blue was the colour worn by Christians and Jews, because only Muslims were allowed to wear white and green. Dark blue and turquoise decorative tiles were widely used to decorate the facades and interiors of mosques and palaces from Spain to Central Asia. Lapis lazuli pigment was also used to create the rich blues in Persian miniatures.
Blue Byzantine mosaic ceiling representing the night sky in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna, Italy (5th century).
Blue mosaic in the cloak of Christ in the Hagia Sophia church in Istanbul (13th century).
Glazed stone-paste bowl from Persia (12th century).
Decorated page of a Koran from Persia (1373 AD)
Blue tile on the facade of the Friday Mosque in Herat, Afghanistan (15th century).
Persian miniature from the 16th century.
Decoration in the Murat III hall of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul (16th century).
Flower-pattern tile from Iznik, Turkey, from second half of 16th century.
Gazelle against a blue sky in the Alhambra Palace, Spain (14th century)
In the art and life of Europe during the early Middle Ages, blue played a minor role. The nobility wore red or purple, while only the poor wore blue clothing, coloured with poor-quality dyes made from the woad plant. Blue played no part in the rich costumes of the clergy or the architecture or decoration of churches. This changed dramatically between 1130 and 1140 in Paris, when the Abbe Suger rebuilt the Saint Denis Basilica. He installed stained glass windows coloured with cobalt, which, combined with the light from the red glass, filled the church with a bluish violet light. The church became the marvel of the Christian world, and the colour became known as the "bleu de Saint-Denis". In the years that followed even more elegant blue stained glass windows were installed in other churches, including at Chartres Cathedral and Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.
Another important factor in the increased prestige of the colour blue in the 12th century was the veneration of the Virgin Mary, and a change in the colours used to depict her clothing. In earlier centuries her robes had usually been painted in sombre black, grey, violet, dark green or dark blue. In the 12th century they began to be painted a rich lighter blue, usually made with a new pigment imported from Asia; ultramarine. Blue became associated with holiness, humility and virtue.
Ultramarine was made from lapis lazuli, from the mines of Badakshan, in the mountains of Afghanistan, near the source of the Oxus River. The mines were visited by Marco Polo in about 1271; he reported, "here is found a high mountain from which they extract the finest and most beautiful of blues." Ground lapis was used in Byzantine manuscripts as early as the 6th century, but it was impure and varied greatly in colour. Ultramarine refined out the impurities through a long and difficult process, creating a rich and deep blue. It was called bleu outremer in French and blu otramere in Italian, since it came from the other side of the sea. It cost far more than any other colour, and it became the luxury colour for the Kings and Princes of Europe.
King Louis IX of France, better known as Saint Louis (1214–1270), became the first King of France to regularly dress in blue. This was copied by other nobles. Paintings of the mythical King Arthur began to show him dressed in blue. The coat of arms of the Kings of France became an azure or light blue shield, sprinkled with golden fleur-de-lis or lilies. Blue had come from obscurity to become the royal colour.
Several other blues were widely used in the Middle Ages and later in the Renaissance. Azurite, a form of copper carbonate, was often used as a substitute for ultramarine. The Romans used it under the name lapis armenius, or Armenian stone. The British called it azure of Amayne, or German azure. The Germans themselves called it bergblau, or mountain stone. It was mined in France, Hungary, Spain and Germany, and it made a pale blue with a hint of green, which was ideal for painting skies. It was a favourite background colour of the German painter Albrecht Durer.
Another blue often used in the Middle Ages was called tournesol or folium. It was made from the plant Crozophora tinctoria, which grew in the south of France. It made a fine transparent blue valued in medieval manuscripts.
Another common blue pigment was smalt, which was made by grinding blue cobalt glass into a fine powder. It made a deep violet blue similar to ultramarine, and was vivid in frescoes, but it lost some of its brilliance in oil paintings. It became especially popular in the 17th century, when ultramarine was difficult to obtain. It was employed at times by Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, El Greco, Van Dyck, Rubens and Rembrandt.
Stained glass windows of the Basilica of Saint Denis (1141–1144).
Notre Dame de la belle verriere window, Chartres Cathedral. (1180–1225).
Detail of the windows at Sainte-Chapelle (1250).
The Maesta by Duccio (1308) showed the Virgin Mary in a robe painted with ultramarine. Blue became the colour of holiness, virtue and humility.
In the 12th century blue became part of the royal coat of arms of France.
The Wilton Diptych, made for King Richard II of England, made lavish use of ultramarine. (About 1400)
The Coronation of King Louis VIII of France in 1223 showed that blue had become the royal colour. (painted in 1450).
In the Renaissance, a revolution occurred in painting; artists began to paint the world as it was actually seen, with perspective, depth, shadows, and light from a single source. Artists had to adapt their use of blue to the new rules. In medieval paintings, blue was used to attract the attention of the viewer to the Virgin Mary, and identify her. In Renaissance paintings, artists tried to create harmonies between blue and red, lightening the blue with lead white paint and adding shadows and highlights. Raphael was a master of this technique, carefully balancing the reds and the blues so no one colour dominated the picture.
Utramarine was the most prestigious blue of the Renaissance, and patrons sometimes specified that it be used in paintings they commissioned. The contract for the Madone des Harpies by Andrea del Sarto (1514) required that the robe of the Virgin Mary be coloured with ultramarine costing "at least five good florins an ounce." Good ultramarine was more expensive than gold; in 1508 the German painter Albrecht Dürer reported in a letter that he had paid twelve ducats- the equivalent of forty-one grams of gold - for just thirty grams of ultramarine.
Often painters or clients saved money by using less expensive blues, such as azurite smalt, or pigments made with indigo, but this sometimes caused problems. Pigments made from azurite were less expensive, but tended to turn dark and green with time. An example is the robe of the Virgin Mary in The Madonna Enthroned with Saints by Raphael in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The Virgin Mary's azurite blue robe has degraded into a greenish-black.
The introduction of oil painting changed the way colours looked and how they were used. Ultramarine pigment, for instance, was much darker when used in oil painting than when used in tempera painting, in frescoes. To balance their colours, Renaissance artists like Raphael added white to lighten the ultramarine. The sombre dark blue robe of the Virgin Mary became a brilliant sky blue. Titian created his rich blues by using many thin glazes of paint of different blues and violets which allowed the light to pass through, which made a complex and luminous colour, like stained glass. He also used layers of finely ground or coarsely ground ultramarine, which gave subtle variations to the blue.
Giotto was one of the first Italian Renaissance painters to use ultramarine, here in the murals of the Arena Chapel in Padua (circa 1305).
Throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, the robes of the Virgin Mary were painted with ultramarine. This is The Virgin of Humility by Fra Angelico (about 1430). Blue fills the picture.
In In the Virgin of the Meadow (1506), Raphael used white to soften the ultramarine blue of Virgin Mary's robes to balance the red and blue, and to harmonize with the rest of the picture.
Giovanni Bellini was the master of the rich and luminous blue, which almost seemed to glow. This Madonna is from 1480.
Titian used an ultramarine sky and robes to give depth and brilliance to Bacchus and Ariadne (1520–1523)
In this painting of The Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints an early work by Raphael in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the blue cloak of the Virgin Mary has turned a green-black. It was painted with less-expensive azurite.
Glazed Terracotta of The Virgin Adoring the Christ Child, from the workshop of Andrea della Robbia (1483)
The Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry was the most important illuminated manuscript of the 15th century. The blue was the extravagantly expensive ultramarine, whose fine grains gave it its brilliant colour. It shows the Duc Du Berry himself seated at the lower right. His costume shows that blue had become a colour for the dress of the nobility, not just of peasants.
In about the 9th century, Chinese artisans abandoned the Han blue colour they had used for centuries, and began to use cobalt blue, made with cobalt salts of alumina, to manufacture fine blue and white porcelain, The plates and vases were shaped, dried, the paint applied with a brush, covered with a clear glaze, then fired at a high temperature. Beginning in the 14th century, this type of porcelain was exported in large quantity to Europe where it inspired a whole style of art, called Chinoiserie. European courts tried for many years to imitate Chinese blue and white porcelain, but only succeeded in the 18th century after a missionary brought the secret back from China.
Other famous white and blue patterns appeared in Delft, Meissen, Staffordshire, and Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Chinese blue and white porcelain from about 1335, made in Jingdezhen, the porcelain centre of China. Exported to Europe, this porcelain launched the style of Chinoiserie.
A soft-paste porcelain vase made in Rouen, France, at the end of the 17th century, imitating Chinese blue and white.
Eighteenth century blue and white pottery from Delft, in the Netherlands.
Russian porcelain of the cobalt net pattern, made with cobalt blue pigment. The Imperial Porcelain Factory in Saint Petersburg was founded in 1744. This pattern, first produced in 1949, was copied after a design made for Catherine the Great.
While blue was an expensive and prestigious colour in European painting, it became a common colour for clothing during the Renaissance. The rise of the colour blue in fashion in the 12th and 13th centuries led to the creation of a thriving blue dye industry in several European cities, notably Amiens, Toulouse and Erfurt. They made a dye called pastel from woad, a plant common in Europe, which had been used to make blue dye by the Celts and German tribes. Blue became a colour worn by domestics and artisans, not just nobles. In 1570, when Pope Pius V listed the colours that could be used for ecclesiastical dress and for altar decoration, he excluded blue, because he considered it too common.
The process of making blue with woad was particularly long and noxious- it involved soaking the leaves of the plant for from three days to a week in human urine, ideally urine from men who had been drinking a great deal of alcohol, which was said to improve the colour. The fabric was then soaked for a day in the urine, then put out in the sun, where as it dried it turned blue.
The pastel industry was threatened in the 15th century by the arrival from India of new blue dye, indigo, made from a shrub widely grown in Asia. Indigo blue had the same chemical composition as woad, but it was more concentrated and produced a richer and more stable blue. In 1498, Vasco de Gama opened a trade route to import indigo from India to Europe. In India, the indigo leaves were soaked in water, fermented, pressed into cakes, dried into bricks, then carried to the ports London, Marseille, Genoa and Bruges. Later, in the 17th century, the British, Spanish and Dutch established indigo plantations in Jamaica, South Carolina, the Virgin Islands and South America, and began to import American indigo to Europe.
The countries with large and prosperous pastel industries tried to block the use of indigo. The German government outlawed the use of indigo in 1577, describing it as a "pernicious, deceitful and corrosive substance, the Devil's dye." In France, Henry IV, in an edict of 1609, forbade under pain of death the use of "the false and pernicious Indian drug". It was forbidden in England until 1611, when British traders established their own indigo industry in India and began to import it into Europe.
The efforts to block indigo were in vain; the quality of indigo blue was too high and the price too low for pastel made from woad to compete. In 1737 both the French and German governments finally allowed the use of indigo. This ruined the dye industries in Toulouse and the other cities that produced pastel, but created a thriving new indigo commerce to seaports such as Bordeaux, Nantes and Marseille.
Another war of the blues took place at the end of the 19th century, between indigo and the new synthetic indigo, first discovered in 1868 by the German chemist Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer. The German chemical firm BASF put the new dye on the market in 1897, in direct competition with the British-run indigo industry in India, which produced most of the world's indigo. In 1897 Britain sold ten thousand tons of natural indigo on the world market, while BASF sold six hundred tons of synthetic indigo. The British industry cut prices and reduced the salaries of its workers, but it was unable to compete; the synthetic indigo was more pure, made a more lasting blue, and was not dependent upon good or bad harvests. In 1911, India sold only 660 tons of natural indigo, while BASF sold 22,000 tons of synthetic indigo.
Not long after the battle between natural and synthetic indigo, chemists discovered a new synthetic blue dye, called indanthrene, which made a blue which did not fade. By the 1950s almost all fabrics, including blue jeans, were dyed with the new synthetic dye. In 1970, BASF stopped making synthetic indigo, and switched to newer synthetic blues.
Isatis tinctoria, or woad, was the main source of blue dye in Europe from ancient times until the arrival of indigo from Asia and America. It was processed into a paste called pastel.
A Dutch tapestry from 1495 to 1505. The blue colour comes from woad.
Indigofera tinctoria, a tropical shrub, is the main source of indigo dye. The chemical composition of indigo dye is the same as that of woad, but the colour is more intense.
Cakes of indigo. The leaf has been soaked in water, fermented, mixed with lye or another base, then pressed into cakes and dried, ready for export.
A woad mill in Thuringia, in Germany, in 1752. The woad industry was already on its way to extinction, unable to compete with indigo blue.
In the 17th century, Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, was one of the first rulers to give his army blue uniforms. The reasons were economic; the German states were trying to protect their pastel dye industry against competition from imported indigo dye. When Brandenburg became the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, the uniform colour was adopted by the Prussian army. Most German soldiers wore dark blue uniforms until the First World War, with the exception of the Bavarians, who wore light blue.
Thanks in part to the availability of indigo dye, the 18th century saw the widespread use of blue military uniforms. Prior to 1748, British naval officers simply wore upper-class civilian clothing and wigs. In 1748, the British uniform for naval officers was officially established as an embroidered coat of the colour then called marine blue, now known as navy blue. When the Continental Navy of the United States was created in 1775, it largely copied the British uniform and colour.
In the late 18th century, the blue uniform became a symbol of liberty and revolution. In October 1774, even before the United States declared its independence, George Mason and one hundred Virginia neighbours of George Washington organised a voluntary militia unit (the Fairfax County Independent Company of Volunteers) and elected Washington the honorary commander. For their uniforms they chose blue and buff, the colours of the Whig Party, the opposition party in England, whose policies were supported by George Washington and many other patriots in the American colonies.
When the Continental Army was established in 1775 at the outbreak of the American Revolution, the first Continental Congress declared that the official uniform colour would be brown, but this was not popular with many militias, whose officers were already wearing blue. In 1778 the Congress asked George Washington to design a new uniform, and in 1779 Washington made the official colour of all uniforms blue and buff. Blue continued to be the colour of the field uniform of the U.S. Army until 1902, and is still the colour of the dress uniform.
In France, the Gardes Françaises, the elite regiment which protected Louis XVI, wore dark blue uniforms with red trim. In 1789, the soldiers gradually changed their allegiance from the King to the people, and they played a leading role in the storming of the Bastille. After the fall of Bastille, a new armed force, the Garde Nationale, was formed under the command of the Marquis de Lafayette, who had served with George Washington in America. Lafayette gave the Garde Nationale dark blue uniforms similar to those of the Continental Army. Blue became the colour of the Revolutionary armies, opposed to the white uniforms of the Royalists and the Austrians.
Napoleon Bonaparte abandoned many of the doctrines of the French Revolution but he kept blue as the uniform colour for his army, although he had great difficulty obtaining the blue dye, since the British controlled the seas and blocked the importation of indigo to France. Napoleon was forced to dye uniforms with woad, which had an inferior blue colour. The French army wore a dark blue uniform coat with red trousers until 1915, when it was found to be a too visible target on the battlefields of World War I. It was replaced with uniforms of a light blue-grey colour called horizon blue.
Blue was the colour of liberty and revolution in the 18th century, but in the 19th it increasingly became the colour of government authority, the uniform colour of policemen and other public servants. It was considered serious and authoritative, without being menacing. In 1829, when Robert Peel created the first London Metropolitan Police, he made the colour of the uniform jacket a dark, almost black blue, to make the policemen look different from soldiers, who until then had patrolled the streets. The traditional blue jacket with silver buttons of the London "bobbie" was not abandoned until the mid-1990s, when it was replaced by a light blue shirt and a jumper or sweater of the colour officially known as NATO blue.
The New York City Police Department, modelled after the London Metropolitan Police, was created in 1844, and in 1853, they were officially given a navy blue uniform, the colour they wear today.
Elector Frederic William of Brandenburg gave his soldiers blue uniforms (engraving from 1698). When Brandenburg became the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, blue became the uniform colour of the Prussian Army.
Uniform of a lieutenant in the Royal Navy (1777). Marine blue became the official colour of the Royal Navy uniform coat in 1748.
George Washington chose blue and buff as the colours of the Continental Army uniform. They were the colours of the English Whig Party, which Washington admired.
The Marquis de Lafayette in the uniform of the Garde Nationale during the French Revolution (1790).
The cadets of the Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, the French military academy, still wear the blue and red uniform of the French army before 1915.
In 1853, New York policemen and firemen were officially outfitted in navy blue uniforms.
Metropolitan Police officers in Soho, London (2007).
New York City police officers on Times Square (2010).
Chicago policeman in blue on a Segway PT (2005)
During the 17th and 18th centuries, chemists in Europe tried to discover a way to create synthetic blue pigments, avoiding the expense of importing and grinding lapis lazuli, azurite and other minerals. The Egyptians had created a synthetic colour, Egyptian blue, three thousand years BC, but the formula had been lost. The Chinese had also created synthetic pigments, but the formula was not known in the west.
In 1709, a German druggist and pigment maker named Diesbach accidentally discovered a new blue while experimenting with potassium and iron sulphides. The new colour was first called Berlin blue, but later became known as Prussian blue. By 1710 it was being used by the French painter Antoine Watteau, and later his successor Nicolas Lancret. It became immensely popular for the manufacture of wallpaper, and in the 19th century was widely used by French impressionist painters.
Beginning in 1820s, Prussian blue was imported into Japan through the port of Nagasaki. It was called bero-ai, or Berlin Blue, and it became popular because it did not fade like traditional Japanese blue pigment, ai-gami, made from the dayflower. Prussian blue was used by both Hokusai, in his famous wave paintings, and Hiroshige.
In 1824, the Societé pour l'Encouragement d'Industrie in France offered a prize for the invention of an artificial ultramarine which could rival the natural colour made from lapis lazuli. The prize was won in 1826 by a chemist named Jean Baptiste Guimet, but he refused to reveal the formula of his colour. In 1828, another scientist, Christian Gmelin then a professor of chemistry in Tübingen, found the process and published his formula. This was the beginning of new industry to manufacture artificial ultramarine, which eventually almost completely replaced the natural product.
In 1878, a German chemist named a. Von Baeyer discovered a synthetic substitute for indigotine, the active ingredient of indigo. This product gradually replaced natural indigo, and after the end of the First World War, it brought an end to the trade of indigo from the East and West Indies.
In 1901, a new synthetic blue dye, called Indanthrone blue, was invented, which had even greater resistance to fading during washing or in the sun. This dye gradually replaced artificial indigo, whose production ceased in about 1970. Today almost all blue clothing is dyed with an indanthrone blue.
The 19th-century Japanese woodblock artist, Hokusai used Prussian blue, a synthetic colour imported from Europe, in his wave paintings.
A synthetic indigo dye factory in Germany in 1890. The manufacture of this dye ended the trade in indigo from America and India that had begun in the 15th century.
The invention of new synthetic pigments in the 18th and 19th centuries considerably brightened and expanded the palette of painters. J.M.W. Turner experimented with the new cobalt blue, and of the twenty colours most used by the Impressionists, twelve were new and synthetic colours, including cobalt blue, ultramarine and cerulean blue.
Another important influence on painting in the 19th century was the theory of complementary colours, developed by the French chemist Michel Eugene Chevreul in 1828 and published in 1839. He demonstrated that placing complementary colours, such as blue and yellow-orange or ultramarine and yellow, next to each other heightened the intensity of each colour "to the apogee of their tonality." In 1879 an American physicist, Ogden Rood, published a book charting the complementary colours of each colour in the spectrum. This principle of painting was used by Claude Monet in his Impression – Sunrise – Fog (1872), where he put a vivid blue next to a bright orange sun, (1872) and in Régate à Argenteuil (1872), where he painted an orange sun against blue water. The colours brighten each other. Renoir used the same contrast of cobalt blue water and an orange sun in Canotage sur la Seine (1879–1880). Both Monet and Renoir liked to use pure colours, without any blending.
Monet and the impressionists were among the first to observe that shadows were full of colour. In his La Gare Saint-Lazare, the grey smoke, vapour and dark shadows are actually composed of mixtures of bright pigment, including cobalt blue, cerulean blue, synthetic ultramarine, emerald green, Guillet green, chrome yellow, vermilion and ecarlate red. Blue was a favourite colour of the impressionist painters, who used it not just to depict nature but to create moods, feelings and atmospheres. Cobalt blue, a pigment of cobalt oxide-aluminium oxide, was a favourite of Auguste Renoir and Vincent van Gogh. It was similar to smalt, a pigment used for centuries to make blue glass, but it was much improved by the French chemist Louis Jacques Thénard, who introduced it in 1802. It was very stable but extremely expensive. Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo, "'Cobalt [blue] is a divine colour and there is nothing so beautiful for putting atmosphere around things ..."
Van Gogh described to his brother Theo how he composed a sky: "The dark blue sky is spotted with clouds of an even darker blue than the fundamental blue of intense cobalt, and others of a lighter blue, like the bluish white of the Milky Way ... the sea was very dark ultramarine, the shore a sort of violet and of light red as I see it, and on the dunes, a few bushes of prussian blue."
Claude Monet used several recently-invented colours in his Gare Saint-Lazare (1877). He used cobalt blue, invented in 1807, cerulean blue invented in 1860, and French ultramarine, first made in 1828.
In Régate à Argenteuil (1872), Monet used two complementary colours together — blue and orange — to brighten the effect of both colours.
Umbrellas, by Pierre Auguste-Renoir. (1881 and 1885). Renoir used cobalt blue for right side of the picture, but used the new synthetic ultramarine introduced in the 1870s, when he added two figures to left of the picture a few years later.
In Vincent Van Gogh's Irises, the blue irises are placed against their complementary colour, yellow-orange.
Van Gogh's Starry Night Over the Rhone (1888). Blue used to create a mood or atmosphere. A cobalt blue sky, and cobalt or ultramarine water.
Wheatfield under clouded sky (July 1890), One of the last paintings by Vincent van Gogh, He wrote of cobalt blue, "there is nothing so beautiful for putting atmosphere around things."
The modern blue business suit has its roots in England in the middle of the 17th century. Following the London plague of 1665 and the London fire of 1666, King Charles II of England ordered that his courtiers wear simple coats, waistcoats and breeches, and the palette of colours became blue, grey, white and buff. Widely imitated, this style of men's fashion became almost a "uniform" of the London merchant class and the English country gentleman.
During the American Revolution, the leader of the Whig Party in England, Charles James Fox, wore a blue coat and buff waistcoat and breeches, the colours of the Whig Party and of the uniform of George Washington, whose principles he supported. The men's suit followed the basic form of the military uniforms of the time, particularly the uniforms of the cavalry.
In the early 19th century, during the Regency of the future King George IV, the blue suit was revolutionized by a courtier named George Beau Brummel. Brummel created a suit that closely fitted the human form. The new style had a long tail coat cut to fit the body and long tight trousers to replace the knee-length breeches and stockings of the previous century. He used plain colours, such as blue and grey, to concentrate attention on the form of the body, not the clothes. Brummel observed, "If people turn to look at you in the street, you are not well dressed." This fashion was adopted by the Prince Regent, then by London society and the upper classes. Originally the coat and trousers were different colours, but in the 19th century the suit of a single colour became fashionable. By the late 19th century the black suit had become the uniform of businessmen in England and America. In the 20th century, the black suit was largely replaced by the dark blue or grey suit.
Joseph Leeson, later 1st Earl of Milltown, in the typical dress of the English country gentleman in the 1730s.
Charles James Fox, a leader of the Whig Party in England, wore a blue suit in Parliament in support of George Washington and the American Revolution. Portrait by Joshua Reynolds (1782).
Beau Brummel introduced the ancestor of the modern blue suit, shaped to the body, with a coat, long trousers, waistcoat, white shirt and elaborate cravat (1805).
Man's suit, 1826. Dark blue suits were still rare; this one is blue-green or teal.
Man's blue suit in the 1870s, Paris. Painting by Caillebotte. In the second half of the 19th century the monochrome suit had become the fashion, but most suits were black.
President John Kennedy popularised the blue two-button business suit, less formal than the suits of his predecessors. (1961)
In the 21st century, the dark blue business suit is the most common style worn by world leaders, seen here at the 2011 G-20 Summit in Cannes, France.
At the beginning of the 20th century, many artists recognised the emotional power of blue, and made it the central element of paintings. During his Blue Period (1901–1904) Pablo Picasso used blue and green, with hardly any warm colours, to create a melancholy mood. In Russia, the symbolist painter Pavel Kuznetsov and the Blue Rose art group (1906–1908) used blue to create a fantastic and exotic atmosphere. In Germany, Wassily Kandinsky and other Russian émigrés formed the art group called Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), and used blue to symbolise spirituality and eternity. Henri Matisse used intense blues to express the emotions he wanted viewers to feel. Matisse wrote, "A certain blue penetrates your soul."
In the art of the second half of the 20th century, painters of the abstract expressionist movement began to use blue and other colours in pure form, without any attempt to represent anything, to inspire ideas and emotions. Painter Mark Rothko observed that colour was "only an instrument;" his interest was "in expressing human emotions tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on."
In fashion, blue, particularly dark blue, was seen as a colour which was serious but not grim. In the mid-20th century, blue passed black as the most common colour of men's business suits, the costume usually worn by political and business leaders. Public opinion polls in the United States and Europe showed that blue was the favourite colour of over fifty per cent of respondents. Green was far behind with twenty per cent, while white and red received about eight per cent each.
In 1873 a German immigrant in San Francisco, Levi Strauss, invented a sturdy kind of work trousers, made of denim fabric and coloured with indigo dye, called blue jeans. In 1935, they were raised to the level of high fashion by Vogue magazine. Beginning in the 1950s, they became an essential part of uniform of young people in the United States, Europe, and around the world.
Blue was also seen as a colour which was authoritative without being threatening. Following the Second World War, blue was adopted as the colour of important international organisations, including the United Nations, the Council of Europe, UNESCO, the European Union, and NATO. United Nations peacekeepers wear blue helmets to stress their peacekeeping role. Blue is used by the NATO Military Symbols for Land Based Systems to denote friendly forces, hence the term "blue on blue" for friendly fire, and Blue Force Tracking for location of friendly units. The People's Liberation Army of China (formerly known as the "Red Army") uses the term "Blue Army" to refer to hostile forces during exercises.
The 20th century saw the invention of new ways of creating blue, such as chemiluminescence, making blue light through a chemical reaction.
In the 20th century, it also became possible to own your own colour of blue. The French artist Yves Klein, with the help of a French paint dealer, created a specific blue called International Klein blue, which he patented. It was made of ultramarine combined with a resin called Rhodopa, which gave it a particularly brilliant colour. The baseball team the Los Angeles Dodgers developed its own blue, called Dodger blue, and several American universities invented new blues for their colours.
During his Blue Period, Pablo Picasso used blue as the colour of melancholy.
The Russian avant-garde painter Pavel Kuznetsov and his group, the Blue Rose, used blue to symbolise fantasy and exoticism. This is In the Steppe- Mirage (1911).
The Blue Rider (1903), by Wassily Kandinsky, For Kandinsky, blue was the colour of spirituality: the darker the blue, the more it awakened human desire for the eternal.
The Conversation (1908–1912) by Henri Matisse used blue to express the emotions he wanted the viewer to feel.
Blue jeans, made of denim coloured with indigo dye, patented by Levi Strauss in 1873, became an essential part of the wardrobe of young people beginning in the 1950s.
Blue is the colour of United Nations peacekeepers, known as Blue Helmets. These soldiers are patrolling the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Vivid blues can be created by chemical reactions, called chemiluminescence. This is luminol, a chemical used in crime scene investigations. Luminol glows blue when it contacts even a tiny trace of blood.
Blue neon lighting, first used in commercial advertising, is now used in works of art. This is Zwei Pferde für Münster (Two horses for Münster), a neon sculpture by Stephan Huber (2002), in Munster, Germany.
Blue pigments were made from minerals, especially lapis lazuli and azurite (. These minerals were crushed, ground into powder, and then mixed with a quick-drying binding agent, such as egg yolk (tempera painting); or with a slow-drying oil, such as linseed oil, for oil painting. To make blue stained glass, cobalt blue (cobalt(II) aluminate: )pigment was mixed with the glass. Other common blue pigments made from minerals are ultramarine (), cerulean blue (primarily cobalt (II) stanate: ), and Prussian blue (milori blue: primarily ).
Natural dyes to colour cloth and tapestries were made from plants. Woad and true indigo were used to produce indigo dye used to colour fabrics blue or indigo. Since the 18th century, natural blue dyes have largely been replaced by synthetic dyes.
Lapis lazuli, mined in Afghanistan for more than three thousand years, was used for jewellery and ornaments, and later was crushed and powdered and used as a pigment. The more it was ground, the lighter the blue colour became.
Azurite, common in Europe and Asia, is produced by the weathering of copper ore deposits. It was crushed and powdered and used as a pigment from ancient times,
Natural ultramarine, made by grinding and purifying lapis lazuli, was the finest available blue pigment in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It was extremely expensive, and in Italian Renaissance art, it was often reserved the robes of the Virgin Mary.
Egyptian blue, the first artificial pigment, created in the third millennium BC in Ancient Egypt by grinding sand, copper and natron, and then heating them. It was often used in tomb paintings and funereal objects to protect the dead in their afterlife.
Ground azurite was often in Renaissance used as a substitute for the much more expensive lapis lazuli. It made a rich blue, but was unstable and could turn dark green over time.
Cerulean was created with copper and cobalt oxide, and used to make a sky blue colour. Like azurite, it could fade or turn green.
Cobalt blue. Cobalt has been used for centuries to colour glass and ceramics; it was used to make the deep blue stained glass windows of Gothic cathedrals and Chinese porcelain beginning in the T'ang Dynasty. In 1799 a French chemist, Louis Jacques Thénard, made a synthetic cobalt blue pigment which became immensely popular with painters.
Prussian blue was one of the first synthetic colours, created in Berlin in about 1706 as a substitute for lapis lazuli. It is also the blue used in blueprints.
Indigo dye is made from the woad, Indigofera tinctoria, a plant common in Asia and Africa but little known in Europe until the 15th century. Its importation into Europe revolutionized the colour of clothing. It also became the colour used in blue denim and jeans. Nearly all indigo dye produced today is synthetic.
Synthetic ultramarine pigment, invented in 1826, has the same chemical composition as natural ultramarine. It is more vivid than natural ultramarine because the particles are smaller and more uniform in size, and thus distribute the light more evenly.
A new synthetic blue created in the 1930s is phthalocyanine, an intense colour widely used for making blue ink, dye, and pigment.
Human eyes perceive blue when observing light which has a wavelength between 450-495 nanometres. Blues with a higher frequency and thus a shorter wavelength gradually look more violet, while those with a lower frequency and a longer wavelength gradually appear more green. Pure blue, in the middle, has a wavelength of 470 nanometres.
Isaac Newton included blue as one of the seven colours in his first description the visible spectrum, He chose seven colours because that was the number of notes in the musical scale, which he believed was related to the optical spectrum. He included indigo, the hue between blue and violet, as one of the separate colours, though today it is usually considered a hue of blue.
In painting and traditional colour theory, blue is one of the three primary colours of pigments (red, yellow, blue), which can be mixed to form a wide gamut of colours. Red and blue mixed together form violet, blue and yellow together form green. Mixing all three primary colours together produces a dark grey. From the Renaissance onwards, painters used this system to create their colours. (See RYB colour system.)
The RYB model was used for colour printing by Jacob Christoph Le Blon as early as 1725. Later, printers discovered that more accurate colours could be created by using combinations of magenta, cyan, yellow and black ink, put onto separate inked plates and then overlaid one at a time onto paper. This method could produce almost all the colours in the spectrum with reasonable accuracy.
In the 19th century the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell found a new way of explaining colours, by the wavelength of their light. He showed that white light could be created by combining red, blue and green light, and that virtually all colours could be made by different combinations of these three colours. His idea, called additive colour or the RGB colour model, is used today to create colours on televisions and computer screens. The screen is covered by tiny pixels, each with three fluorescent elements for creating red, green and blue light. If the red, blue and green elements all glow at once, the pixel looks white. As the screen is scanned from behind with electrons, each pixel creates its own designated colour, composing a complete picture on the screen.
Additive colour mixing. The projection of primary colour lights on a screen shows secondary colours where two overlap; the combination red, green, and blue each in full intensity makes white.
Blue and orange pixels on an LCD television screen. Closeup of the red, green and blue sub-pixels on left.
On the HSV colour wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal mixture of red and green light. On a colour wheel based on traditional colour theory (RYB) where blue was considered a primary colour, its complementary colour is considered to be orange (based on the Munsell colour wheel).
Of the colours in the visible spectrum of light, blue has a very short wavelength, while red has the longest wavelength. When sunlight passes through the atmosphere, the blue wavelengths are scattered more widely by the oxygen and nitrogen molecules, and more blue comes to our eyes. This effect is called Rayleigh scattering, after Lord Rayleigh, the British physicist who discovered it. It was confirmed by Albert Einstein in 1911.
Near sunrise and sunset, most of the light we see comes in nearly tangent to the Earth's surface, so that the light's path through the atmosphere is so long that much of the blue and even green light is scattered out, leaving the sun rays and the clouds it illuminates red. Therefore, when looking at the sunset and sunrise, you will see the colour red more than any of the other colours.
The sea is seen as blue for largely the same reason: the water absorbs the longer wavelengths of red and reflects and scatters the blue, which comes to the eye of the viewer. The colour of the sea is also affected by the colour of the sky, reflected by particles in the water; and by algae and plant life in the water, which can make it look green; or by sediment, which can make it look brown.
The farther away an object is, the more blue it often appears to the eye. For example, mountains in the distance often appear blue. This is the effect of atmospheric perspective; the farther an object is away from the viewer, the less contrast there is between the object and its background colour, which is usually blue. In a painting where different parts of the composition are blue, green and red, the blue will appear to be more distant, and the red closer to the viewer. The cooler a colour is, the more distant it seems.
Blue light is scattered more than other wavelengths by the gases in the atmosphere, giving the Earth a blue halo when seen from space.
An example of aerial, or atmospheric perspective. Objects become more blue and lighter in colour the farther they are from the viewer, because of Rayleigh scattering.
Under the sea, red and other light with longer wavelengths is absorbed, so white objects appear blue. The deeper you go, the darker the blue becomes. In the open sea, only about one per cent of light penetrates to a depth of 200 metres. (See underwater and euphotic depth)
Blue eyes do not actually contain any blue pigment. Eye colour is determined by two factors: the pigmentation of the eye's iris and the scattering of light by the turbid medium in the stroma of the iris. In humans, the pigmentation of the iris varies from light brown to black. The appearance of blue, green, and hazel eyes results from the Rayleigh scattering of light in the stroma, an optical effect similar to that which accounts for the blueness of the sky. The irises of the eyes of people with blue eyes contain less dark melanin than those of people with brown eyes, which means that they absorb less short-wavelength blue light, which is instead reflected out to the viewer. Eye colour also varies depending on the lighting conditions, especially for lighter-coloured eyes.
Blue eyes are most common in Ireland, the Baltic Sea area and Northern Europe, and are also found in Eastern, Central, and Southern Europe. Blue eyes are also found in parts of Western Asia, most notably in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. In Estonia, 99% of people have blue eyes. In Denmark 30 years ago, only 8% of the population had brown eyes, though through immigration, today that number is about 11%. In Germany, about 75% have blue eyes.
In the United States, as of 2006, one out of every six people, or 16.6% of the total population, and 22.3% of the white population, have blue eyes, compared with about half of Americans born in 1900, and a third of Americans born in 1950. Blue eyes are becoming less common among American children. In the U.S., boys are 3-5 per cent more likely to have blue eyes than girls.
Lasers emitting in the blue region of the spectrum became widely available to the public in 2010 with the release of inexpensive high-powered 445-447 nm Laser diode technology. Previously the blue wavelengths were accessible only through DPSS which are comparatively expensive and inefficient, however these technologies are still widely used by the scientific community for applications including Optogenetics, Raman spectroscopy, and Particle image velocimetry, due to their superior beam quality. Blue Gas lasers are also still commonly used for Holography, DNA sequencing, Optical pumping, and other scientific and medical applications.
Lactarius indigo, or the blue milk mushroom
Cornflower
Myosotis, or Forget-me-not
Blue seeds of the Ravenala tree from Madagascar
The Morpho peleides butterfly. The blue is caused by iridescence, the diffraction of light from millions of tiny scales on the wings. The colour is intended to frighten predators.
River kingfisher
Linckia Blue starfish
Blue sapphire, a gemstone of the mineral corundum. Trace amounts of iron colour it blue; if there are traces of chromium instead, it has a red tint and is called a ruby.
Dried crystals of copper sulphate
Blueberries
Dendrobates azureus, the poison dart frog from Brazil. Its skin contains alkaloids which can paralyze or kill predators.
Blue Jay
A blue whale, the largest known animal to have ever existed, seen from above. The back is a pale blue grey.
A man of the Tuareg people of North Africa wears a tagelmust or turban dyed with indigo. The indigo stains their skin blue; they were known by early visitors as "the blue men" of the desert.
Various shades of blue are used as the national colours for many nations.
The first flag of Portugal, used by Count Henry from 1095 till 1143.
The second flag of Portugal, used by King Afonso I from 1143 till 1185.
The third flag of Portugal, used by King Sancho I from 1185 till early 13th century.
The flag of Scotland, (with the Cross of Saint Andrew), used as early as the 15th century, is one of the oldest blue national flags.
The state flag of Sweden dates to 1562.
The flag of the Netherlands (1572) was the first tricolour national flag. Orange, white and blue were the colours of the Prince of Orange in his fight for independence from Spain.
The Union Jack (1606), the first flag of the United Kingdom, combined the white Cross of Saint Andrew of Scotland with the red Cross of Saint George of England. The red Cross of Saint Patrick, symbolising Ireland, was added in 1801. It was originally a naval flag, and the background colour was dark navy blue.
The flag of Russia was created by Peter the Great in about 1664. He rearranged the flag of the Netherlands, a country whose maritime traditions he admired. It was replaced by a red flag during the time of the Soviet Union, but returned in 1991 after the fall of Communism.
The Grand Union Flag of 1775 was the first flag of the United States, created the year before American independence.
In 1777 the Continental Congress specified that the field of the new United States flag should be blue with a constellation of thirteen stars representing the thirteen states, but did not specify how they should be arranged. This was one version from 1777.
The flag of the city of Paris, the basis of the French tricolour. Blue was the traditional colour of Saint Martin of Tours, while red was the colour of Saint Denis.
The French tricolour (1794). White, representing either the French nation (according to the version of the Marquis de Lafayette) or the French monarchy was added to the red and blue of the flag of Paris to make the tricolour.
The flag of Haiti was first flown in 1808.
The flag of Argentina was first raised in 1812.
The flag of Greece was originally the naval ensign in 1822, then the national flag in 1969.
The flag of Israel, originally the flag of Zionist movement, became the national flag in 1948. The blue stripes on white are inspired by the Talit, or prayer shawl.
The flag of Kosovo, which declared its independence in 2008, features a gold map of Kosovo and six stars for the six ethnic groups of Kosovo on a blue background. This design was selected after an international competition.
The flag of South Sudan (2011), the newest recognised nation in the world. The blue represents the Nile River, which flows through the country.
The first flag of the United Nations (1945–1947). Blue was chosen as a colour which symbolised peace. The first flag had the United States (the host of the first UN Conference) in the central position, but left out the southern portion of South America.
The U.N. flag was revised in October 1947 with an azimuthal equidistant projection centred on the North Pole, which gave Europe, the U.S. and Asia equal prominence, and included all of South America.
The flag of Europe was created as the flag of the Council of Europe in 1955, and became the flag of the European Economic Community in 1985. The twelve stars do not symbolize any particular nations - the COE actually had fifteen members when the flag was created. Twelve was chosen as a symbol of perfection and completeness.
An illustration by William Hogarth from 1854 shows a polling station with the blue flag of the Tory party and the orange flag of the Whigs.
The blue necktie of British Prime Minister David Cameron represents his Conservative Party.
A map of the U.S. showing the blue states, which voted for the Democratic candidate in all the last four Presidential elections, and the red states, which voted for the Republican.
Blue stripes on a traditional Jewish tallit. The blue stripes are also featured in the flag of Israel.
Vishnu, the supreme god of Hinduism, is often portrayed as being blue, or more precisely having skin the colour of rain-filled clouds.
In Catholicism, blue became the traditional colour of the robes of the Virgin Mary in the 13th century.
The Bhaisajyaguru, or "Medicine Master of Lapis Lazuli Light", is the Buddha of healing and medicine in Mahayana Buddhism. He traditionally holds a lapis lazuli jar of medicine.
In the Islamic World, blue and turquoise tile traditionally decorates the facades and exteriors of mosques and other religious buildings. This mosque is in Isfahan, Iran.
Madame Pompadour, the mistress of King Louis XV of France, wore blue myosotis, or forget-me-not flowers in her hair and on her gowns as a symbol of faithfulness to the King.
Many sporting teams make blue their official colour, or use it as detail on kit of a different colour. In addition, the colour is present on the logos of many sports associations.
In international association football, blue is a common colour on kits, as a majority of nations wear the colours of their national flag. A notable exception is four-time FIFA World Cup winners Italy, who wear a blue kit based on the Azzuro Savoia (Savoy blue) of the royal House of Savoy which unified the Italian states. The team themselves are known as Gli Azzurri (the Blues). Another World Cup winning nation with a blue shirt is France, who are known as Les Bleus (the Blues). Two neighbouring countries with two World Cup victories each, Argentina and Uruguay wear a light blue shirt, the former with white stripes. Uruguay are known as the La Celeste, Spanish for 'the sky blue one', while Argentina are known as Los Albicelestes, Spanish for 'the sky blue and whites'.
Football clubs which have won the European Cup or Champions League and wear blue include FC Barcelona of Spain (red and blue stripes), FC Internazionale Milano of Italy (blue and black stripes) and FC Porto of Portugal (blue and white stripes). Another European Cup-winning club, Aston Villa of England, wear light blue detailing on a mostly claret shirt, often as the colour of the sleeves. Clubs which have won the Copa Libertadores, a tournament for South American clubs, and wear blue include six-time winners Boca Juniors of Buenos Aires, Argentina. They wear a blue shirt with a yellow band across.
Blue features on the logo of football's governing body FIFA, as well as featuring highly in the design of their website. The European governing body of football, UEFA, uses two tones of blue to create a map of Europe in the centre of their logo. The Asian Football Confederation, Oceania Football Confederation and CONCACAF (the governing body of football in North and Central America and the Caribbean) use blue text on their logos.
In Major League Baseball, the premier baseball league in the United States of America and Canada, blue is one of the three colours, along with white and red, on the league's official logo. A team from Toronto, Ontario, are the Blue Jays. The Los Angeles Dodgers use blue prominently on their uniforms and the phrase "Dodger Blue" is may be said to describe Dodger fans' "blood". The Texas Rangers also use Blue prominently on their uniforms and logo.
The National Basketball Association, the premier basketball league in the United States and Canada, also has blue as one of the colours on their logo, along with red and white also, as does its female equivalent, the WNBA. The Sacramento Monarchs of the WNBA wear blue. Former NBA player Theodore Edwards was nicknamed "Blue". The only NBA teams to wear blue as first choice are the Charlotte Bobcats and the Indiana Pacers, however blue is a common away colour for many other franchises.
The National Football League, the premier American football league in the United States, also uses blue as one of three colours, along with white and red, on their official logo. The Seattle Seahawks, New York Giants, Buffalo Bills, Indianapolis Colts, New England Patriots, Tennessee Titans, Denver Broncos, Houston Texans, San Diego Chargers, Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions feature blue prominently on their uniforms.
The National Hockey League, the premier Ice hockey league in Canada and the United States, uses blue on its official logo. Blue is the main colour of many teams in the league: the Buffalo Sabres, Columbus Blue Jackets, Edmonton Oilers, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs, Tampa Bay Lightning, Vancouver Canucks and the Winnipeg Jets.
The Italian national football team wear blue in honour of the royal House of Savoy which unified the country.
The New Orleans Hornets, a National Basketball Association franchise from New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, wear blue as an away colour.
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Logical Journey Of The Zoombinis

Logical Journey of the Zoombinis (also known as Zoombinis Logical Journey in the remake) is an educational puzzle computer game developed and published by Brøderbund Software for the original and The Learning Company for the remake.

Digital media

Digital media is a form of electronic media where data are stored in digital (as opposed to analog) form. It can refer to the technical aspect of storage and transmission (e.g. hard disk drives or computer networking) of information or to the "end product", such as digital video, augmented reality, digital signage, digital audio, or digital art .

Application software is all the computer software that causes a computer to perform useful tasks (compare with computer viruses) beyond the running of the computer itself. A specific instance of such software is called a software application, program, application or app.

The term is used to contrast such software with system software, which manages and integrates a computer's capabilities but does not directly perform tasks that benefit the user. The system software serves the application, which in turn serves the user.

Zoombini Island Odyssey

Zoombinis Island Odyssey is an educational puzzle computer game developed and published by The Learning Company.

Zoombinis Mountain Rescue

Zoombinis Mountain Rescue is an educational puzzle computer game developed and published by The Learning Company.

Windows games

Games for Windows was a brand owned by Microsoft and introduced in 2006 to coincide with the release of Windows Vista and Windows 7. The brand represents a standardized technical certification program and online service for Windows games, bringing a measure of regulation to the PC game market in much the same way that console manufacturers regulate their platforms. The branding program is open to both first-party and third-party publishers.

Games for Windows was promoted through convention kiosks and through other forums as early as 2005. The promotional push culminated in a deal with Ziff Davis Media to rename the Computer Gaming World magazine to Games for Windows: The Official Magazine. The first GFW issue was published for November 2006, and the magazine was defunct as of 2008.

Puzzle video games

Puzzle video games are a genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of puzzles to be solved can test many problem solving skills including logic, strategy, pattern recognition, sequence solving, and word completion.

Puzzle games focus on logical and conceptual challenges, although occasionally the games add time-pressure or other action-elements. Although many action games and adventure games involve puzzles such as obtaining inaccessible objects, a true puzzle game focuses on puzzle solving as the primary gameplay activity. Games usually involve shapes, colors, or symbols, and the player must directly or indirectly manipulate them into a specific pattern.

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